Gary Vernon Earl II stands in the living room of a home on the street where he lived when his father was stationed at George Air Force Base in Victorville. Many former Air Force personnel and their families who lived on the base believe their health problems may be related to toxic exposure from the base.(Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

It was early July 1988 when Rennie Auiler, the 28-year-old wife of an airman, sat in a hospital examination room at George Air Force Base waiting for a routine checkup.

Having given birth six weeks earlier to a premature 6-pound girl following a difficult pregnancy marked by acute morning sickness, she sought assurance from her physician that her next baby would come easier.

Instead, the prognosis stunned her.

“The doctor recommended that I shouldn’t get pregnant again because I had a high chance of dying and the fetus would not make it to full term,” said Auiler, 53, of Springfield, Missouri. “I was in tears.”

Although the doctor didn’t elaborate, Auiler — who has never had another child and suffers from large B-cell lymphoma along with a host of other medical problems — now believes he was alerting her to hidden dangers at George.

“I think he was trying to warn me of the toxic things going on at the base,” she said in a phone interview.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency simply refers to the property as Superfund site number CA2570024453.

Lurking in the water supply and soil beneath the former base are 33 hazardous chemicals, including plumes of spent jet fuel and trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent used to degrease planes. The chemical can harm the nervous system, kidneys, heart and other vital organs, and, according to the EPA, has been found to cause cancer in mice and rats.

But environmental hazards aren’t limited solely to the lockup in Victorville.

“Hundreds of prisons around the country are built on or adjacent to toxic sites, whether or not they’re designated as Superfund sites,” said Sara Imperiale, a staff attorney specializing in environmental justice at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Efforts by EPA to clean up the Victorville site began in 1996, but are years away from completion.

The contamination now “extends over 700 acres, impacts two aquifers, and threatens the Mojave River and its underlying aquifer and supply wells,” according to a Sept. 28, 2016, letter from the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board in Victorville.

The Air Force had proposed to let Mother Nature clean the water over time, through natural filtration and other human-free processes known collectively as “monitored natural attenuation.” The water board estimated that process could take more than 500 years before the groundwater quality would return to normal.

In the meantime, the board wrote, there are “continuous and ongoing low-level releases of contaminants to the groundwater.” The contaminants include two flame-retardant compounds: perfluorooctanoic acid, which is used in the creation of Teflon and similar chemicals; and perfluorooctane sulfonate, which is used in the creation of stain repellents. Both perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate are suspected to cause cancer.

Water for prisoners is piped in from Victorville, according to Bill Muir, a senior engineering geologist for the Home Page Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Array of health concerns

The property that housed George Air Force base is among at least 126 military installations where the ground and drinking water exceed the EPA’s recommended 70-parts-per-trillion level for perfluorooctane sulfonate or perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as PFOS and PFOAs, the Department of Defense reported in March.

Fourteen groundwater monitoring wells at George were found to have PFOS or PFOAs levels ranging from 87 to 5,396 ppt above the 70-ppt limit. The man-made chemicals are used in many industrial products to resist heat, stains, water and grease. In the 1970s, the DOD began using firefighting foam containing PFOS to extinguish petroleum fires at military bases. Exposure to PFOS and PFOAs can cause developmental delays in fetuses and children, changes to the immune system, and prostate, kidney and testicular cancer.

Accounts of lingering, debilitating medical problems abound among those who lived and worked at George Air Force Base or were incarcerated at the prison.

Pauline Blake, 52, who lives in Salt Lake City and served five years of a 25-year sentence for narcotics offenses before President Barack Obama granted her clemency in 2016, said stomach ulcers from H. pylori bacteria — which can be spread via tainted food or water supplies — were common among prisoners at Victorville.

Illness was so rampant that speculating how prisoners got sick became a parlor game for Blake and her cellmates.

“We were always trying to guess what was wrong with them,” she said. “We were always concerned. We prayed over every meal.”

Frank Vera stands next to a weapons storage area at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville that houses a prison where immigrant detainees are being held. He runs a website dedicated to exposing environmental problems on the property. (Courtesy of Frank Vera)

Website exposes environmental issues

Frank Vera, a 65-year-old former airman at George, has been diagnosed with radiation exposure and suffers from seizures, emphysema, chronic pain syndrome and a litany of other maladies.

He manages a Facebook group and website aimed at exposing George’s environmental problems, and has been contacted by more than 1,500 people who claim they, too, became sick from working and living on the base.

“In the beginning, I thought it was just me who got sick,” said Vera, who lives in Jamestown, just west of Yosemite National Park. “Then I realized maybe it wasn’t just me. The Air Force absolutely knew the base was sick and they stationed us there. They didn’t tell us and didn’t warn us. They just covered it up.”

Kate Kelly was a new recruit at George Air Force Base in 1975 when she began experiencing health problems (Courtesy of Kate Kelly)

300 report miscarriages

Among those who have contacted Vera, contending their health was harmed at the base, are about 300 women who reported having miscarriages.

Kate Kelly, who lives in Jupiter, Florida, is among them. She didn’t heed her roommate’s warning not to get pregnant at George. Like other women on the base, she, too, had a miscarriage.

A star swimmer from San Francisco, Kelly had her sights set on the Olympics. She enlisted in the Air Force in 1974 in excellent physical shape.

Less than two years later, Kelly was forced to leave the Air Force with a medical discharge. “I wanted to stay, but they said I wasn’t fit for the military,” she said.

However, she was told the planes had been exposed to Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces to destroy forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. Kelly doesn’t know if the documents from the plane were contaminated, but she regularly consumed water at the base and fears it may have been tainted.

“I was plagued by toxic chemical exposure,” said Kelly, whose ex-husband also was stationed at George and died from multiple myeloma at age 62. “There was an awful lot of sickness on that base.”

The housing complex for the George Air Force base is across the street from what is now federal penitentiary. Immigrant detainees are currently being held at the prison which has toxic soil and contaminated water. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)
Gary Vernon Earl II is the son of an Air Force helicopter pilot who was stationed at George Air Force Base in Victorville. Many former Air Force personnel and their families who live on the base believe their health problems may be related to toxic exposure from the base.(Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Gary Vernon Earl II sits with his wife Kim near the entrance of the housing complex that was his home when his father was stationed at George Air Force Base in Victorville. The base is now a federal penitentiary. Immigrant detainees are currently being held at the prison which has toxic soil and contaminated water. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

The housing complex for the George Air Force base is across the street from what is now federal penitentiary. Immigrant detainees are currently being held at the prison which has toxic soil and contaminated water. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

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Shaun Earl is consoled by his mother Kim Earl. Shaun had just finished up taking a tour of the housing complex where his father lived at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville. The base is now a federal penitentiary. Immigrant detainees are currently being held at the prison which has toxic soil and contaminated water. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)
(Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Gary Vernon Earl II stands in the backyard of what was once his home when his father was stationed at George Air Force Base in Victorville. The base is now a federal penitentiary. Immigrant detainees are currently being held at the prison which has toxic soil and contaminated water. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Water towers from the Victorville federal prison can be seen in the background of this photo taken on the housing complex for the former George Air Force Base in Victorville. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Gary Vernon Earl II stands in the living room of a home on the street where he lived when his father was stationed at George Air Force Base in Victorville. Many former Air Force personnel and their families who lived on the base believe their health problems may be related to toxic exposure from the base.(Photo by Bill Alkofer, Contributing Photographer)

Chemist and Trace Minerals Department supervisor Megan Langdon tests for trace metals at Babcock Laboratories, Inc. in Riverside on Monday, August 13, 2018. The laboratory has tested water from the Federal Correctional Complex in Victorville that currently houses about 1,000 immigrant detainees. The correctional complex is located on a superfund site where hazardous chemicals from the former George Air Force Base have seeped into the soil and water. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Lab Technician Heather LaBathe weighs suspended solids at Babcock Laboratories, Inc. in Riverside on Monday, August 13, 2018. The laboratory has tested water from the Federal Correctional Complex in Victorville that currently houses about 1,000 immigrant detainees. The correctional complex is located on a superfund site where hazardous chemicals from the former George Air Force Base have seeped into the soil and water. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Senior Organics Chemist Jim Schaupp prepares standards for trace volatile organics at Babcock Laboratories, Inc. in Riverside on Monday, August 13, 2018. The laboratory has tested water from the Federal Correctional Complex in Victorville that currently houses about 1,000 immigrant detainees. The correctional complex is located on a superfund site where hazardous chemicals from the former George Air Force Base have seeped into the soil and water. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Senior Organics Chemist Jim Schaupp prepares standards for trace volatile organics at Babcock Laboratories, Inc. in Riverside on Monday, August 13, 2018. The laboratory has tested water from the Federal Correctional Complex in Victorville that currently houses about 1,000 immigrant detainees. The correctional complex is located on a superfund site where hazardous chemicals from the former George Air Force Base have seeped into the soil and water. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Gary Vernon Earl II, 45, of Hyde Park, Utah, lived at George from 1974 to 1980 while his father, a helicopter pilot was stationed on the base. In 2016, Earl nearly died from a tear within the wall of his aorta, the largest artery in the body. He also has been plagued by lifelong memory problems and one of his sisters has suffered several miscarriages while another has developmental disabilities.

Earl usually took swimming lessons at George, but recalled one summer his parents inexplicably took him to another pool miles away from the base. He now ponders whether they suspected water at the garrison was contaminated.

“It makes me wonder if my health issues and those of my family are connected to chemical exposure on the base?” he said.

Detainees ‘have no choice to leave’

Victorville and the High Desert are still struggling to recover from the economic blow of the air base closure in 1992. It’s not a surprise to Imperiale that the federal government would locate a prison there.

“We’re finding spaces that don’t otherwise have a use and hoping the outcry is minimal,” she said. “It’s very often touted as a way to the communities to bring in federal dollars.”

But that means that hundreds or thousands of prisoners are being exposed to potentially toxic substances, some of which can evaporate up through the soil and be breathed in by those in the area.

“If it’s a Superfund site, it’s a Superfund site for a reason,” Imperiale said.

“They are just trying to get away from oppression and were knowingly put by the government into a prison on a toxic dump,” she said. “These are people who are in custody and have no choice to leave. The government has given them a death sentence.”

Scott Schwebke is an investigative reporter for the Register and the Southern California News Group. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he was previously a breaking news and multimedia reporter for the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner. Scott has also worked at newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Scott is the Register's 2014 Beat Reporter of the Year. He has won more than two dozen journalism awards including the N.C. Associated Press News Council’s O. Henry Award for a lengthy narrative on the brutal home invasion slaying of a nurse and a Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club for a feature story on a UFO investigator. Scott has covered everything from methamphetamine trafficking cops to hurricanes and has accompanied police on undercover drug buys. He also provided an award winning, eyewitness account of the execution of a North Carolina death row inmate and obtained an exclusive interview with the ringleader of a brazen escape from the Orange County Jail involving three maximum security inmates. Scott was also part of the Register’s investigative team that produced the year-long, award winning Rehab Riviera series, examining problems in Southern California’s drug rehabilitation industry. Having spent two years living in England including Liverpool, he is an avid Beatles fan and memorabilia collector. He and his wife, Lisa, reside in Anaheim.

Beau Yarbrough wrote his first newspaper article taking on an authority figure (his middle school principal) when he was in 7th grade. He’s been a professional journalist since 1992, working in Virginia, Egypt and California. In that time, he’s covered community news, features, politics, local government, education, the comic book industry and more. He’s covered the war in Bosnia, interviewed presidential candidates, written theatrical reviews, attended a seance, ridden in a blimp and interviewed both Batman and Wonder Woman (Adam West and Lynda Carter). He also cooks a mean pot of chili.